OHIO'S INTEL PROJECT TRIGGERS HOUSING FEARS IN TIGHT MARKET

Intel's announcement earlier this year of a $20 billion manufacturing operation bringing thousands of jobs to rural Ohio was greeted as an economic boon.

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But behind that enthusiasm lurked a pressing question.

"Where are we putting everybody?" asked Melissa Humbert-Washington, vice president of programs and services at Homes for Families, which helps low-wage workers find housing in a region already suffering a major shortage.

Intel says its initial two computer chip factories will employ 3,000 people when the operation is up and running in 2025. The project is also expected to employ 7,000 construction workers. And none of that includes the hundreds of additional jobs as Intel suppliers move in, along with the expected boom in the service sector.

Such housing challenges are playing out across the country as companies increasingly come under fire for failing to consider the shelter needs of their new employees or the impact big developments will have on already tight housing markets.

Experts agree that years of underbuilding dating to the Great Recession of 2008 has caused widespread housing shortages. Nationally, the country is short about 1 million homes, according to Rob Dietz, senior economist at the National Association of Home Builders. The National Apartment Association estimates a rental shortage of about 600,000 units.

"We have underbuilt housing by millions of homes over the past 15 years," said Dennis Shea, executive director of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy. "So when a big company comes into a community that is supply constrained, the demand that they're going to inject ... is going to affect home prices and rental prices because there's more demand than supply!"